The Huffington Post
Posted: January 15, 2010 12:24 PM

Re-Skinning Competition—Environmentally Smart Buildings and Cities
By: Ron Dembo, Leading authority in risk management

Ask anyone about the big causes of global warming and odds are that gas-guzzling SUVs will be a common reply. What those respondents do not understand is that SUVs are responsible for a percent or two of North America’s carbon footprint. The big carbon culprits are our cities or, more precisely, the buildings in them.

Many of us already know that our cities are environmental troublemakers. Few, though, comprehend just how bad the problem is. That is because cities are so ubiquitous they are almost invisible. It is a case of not seeing the forest for the trees.

The existing buildings in New York, for example, produce more than 60 percent of that city’s total carbon footprint. This dwarfs the output from all other contenders for worst environmental enemy of the year. It is hard to make SUVs look like model citizens, but buildings manage to do it.

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